ANTI-BUSHISM

By Ray Fleming THOSE of us of a certain age really do not need young Mr Blair to tell us how important it is that Europe and the United States should get along and that anti-Americanism is “madness”. He told the Australian Parliament on Monday that “None of the problems that press in on us can be resolved or even contemplated without them.” That is true in principle but there are exceptions to be made. Did America's intervention in Vietnam help the cause of international understanding and peace in the world? I think not. Will the invasion of Iraq lead to a more settled and more democratic Middle East? I think not. I know that some readers of this newspaper believe that I am among those with the anti-American disposition criticised by Mr Blair. I am not. Like many, many people, including a great number of Americans, I am anti-Bush, which is a different matter entirely. His foreign policies are alien to the enlightened mainstream of American thinking, going back to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. He is lamentably ignorant of the world outside his own country and cannot understand why others think and act differently even though their cultures predate America's by centuries. The Bush adminstration is an aberration and it does no service to the American people to pretend otherwise. Mr Blair's close identification with Mr Bush has detracted from, rather than added to, the special relationship which existed earlier.